Yesterday we celebrated Pixie’s 4th birthday!
FOUR years old
F is for my favourite
O is for outstanding
U is for unbelievable
R is for remarkable
Happy Birthday precious girl
Category Archives: Pixie
Montessori Madness ~ Totschool ~ My Little Pony Trays
~Pixie is 42 months old~
Pixie LOVES My Little Pony, especially the new Equestria Girls. I couldn’t find any Equestria Girl resources for her so I went with the tried and trusted printables from 1+1+1=1 (see resource links below). Here are some of our trays for this week.
1.
In this tray I have a sorting and gluing activity. I didn’t include the glue until after she brought the tray out to work on. glue can be very messy if left unsupervised.
2.
I added different scissors to this tray after the photo was taken. These particular pair of scissors didn’t work as advertised, much to Pixie’s disgust. Once I swapped the scissors to a decent pair, she loved this tray.
3.
My Little Pony Non-clementure cards. What better way to learn the names of the Ponies than to play with these!
4.
My Little Pony number sequence puzzle.
5.
Do-a-Dot printables are always a HUGE hit. We have the Imaginarium Creations set from Toys-R-Us as the original Do-a-Dot markers aren’t available in South Africa.
6.
My Little Pony Playdough Mat. I’m not sure how Pixie is going to do with this one as its the first time she’ll be working on one. The playdough was purchased through a friend who makes it from home. You can find a recipe for homemade playdough here.
7.
My Little Pony I am.. printable is a great resource for reviewing all the names of the Ponies learned during the Non-clementure cards activity.
8.
My Little Pony colour match activity.
9. These are books she loves to page through (you can find the link of our favourite books here). It’s not all of the books she loves, mind you (there just isn’t enough space on this shelf).
10. I bought the mats at Mr Price Home for R50 each. They are the perfect size. We have them in the size 50×80 and in white, green and blue.
Resources
My Little Pony Printables by 1+1+1=1
Montessori Madness: Valentines Day Trays
February is the Month of Love and what better way to celebrate than to have Valentines Day themed Montessori Trays!
1. 
Heart shape puzzles. These are super cute! Pixie is going to L.O.V.E. these!
2. 
I bought this adorable heart silicone mould a few years ago. I added some pink aquarium stones in a little basket with tweezers.
3. 
Many coloured hearts book with pencils.
4. 
I pushed golf tees into a glitter covered styrofoam heart and have red marbles in another little basket. The marbles balance on the golf tees. I initially had it all on the green heart tray, but it wasn’t perfectly flat, so the marbles kept falling off.
5. 
Heart colour matching cards
6. 
Achy Breaky Hearts Matching Game file folder game that I modified for Fifi years ago.
7. These are books she loves to page through (you can find the link of our favourite books here). It’s not all of the books she loves, mind you (there just isn’t enough space on this shelf).
8. I bought the mats at Mr Price Home for R50 each. They are the perfect size. We have them in the size 50×80 and in white, green and blue.
Resources
Love tot pack from 1+1+1=1
Achy Breaky Hearts Matching Game
Back to School
We are officially back to school. We started last Wednesday and the kids are L.O.V.I.N.G. their new curriculum. I was very apprehensive in the weeks before we started back, but I don’t regret our decision to change from Clonard Distance Education to what we will be using now.
KOKO
Language Arts: English: Learning Language Arts Through Literature Red Book
Afrikaans: Afrikaans – Geniet Dit! – Werkboek 1
Mathematics: Math U See Alpha
Handwriting: Italic Handwriting Series Book B
Science (Group work): Hands-on-Science Foundation Phase
Geography (Group work): Enchanted homeschooling Mom’s Pack Your Bags lapbook series
History (Group work): Story of the World Volume 1
Life Skills: Life Skills 2
Art (Group work): Kidazzle
FIFI
Language Arts: English: Learning Language Arts Through Literature Blue Book
Afrikaans (Group Work): Afrikaans – Geniet Dit! – Werkboek 1
Mathematics: Math U See Primer
Handwriting: Italic Handwriting Series Book A
Science (Group work): Hands-on-Science Foundation Phase
Geography (Group work): Enchanted homeschooling Mom’s Pack Your Bags lapbook series
History (Group work): Story of the World Volume 1
Life Skills: Life Skills 1
Art (Group work): Kidazzle
PIXIE
Pixie will be using a variety of online resource themes and the Kumon Cutting, Colouring, Pasting, etc, books. We will continue to follow the Montessori Method with her.
Montessori Madness ~ Monster Montessori trays for this week
~Pixie is 41 months old~
We have been back at the school proverbial grindstone since last Wednesday and the kids are loving their new curriculum. Pixie is still busy with tot/preschool and will continue to work using the Montessori method. Here are her Monster Montessori trays for this week.
1
Do a dot monster painting. Pixie loves working with the dot paints. I have a stack of different pages printed for her. She asks for them often.
2
Monster Dots matching. Match the pattern to the monster, or visa versa.
3
4 park monster puzzles.
4
Monster Shadow Matching.
5
Monster Shape Matching. Each monster has a shape on the belly and a corresponding card.
6
Monster Size Sequencing. These are great for teaching sizes. Pixie loves to name each monster by size, the big one is Daddy, the next one is Momma, then Noo, Koko, Fifi and Pixie.
7
Monster Clothes Peg Number Cards. I decided not to use clothes pegs for this activity. She will be using stones to put on the correct number. This is the first time I’ve had an activity for her like this.
8
Shape Monster matching cards. Each monster is made up of a certain shape and has a corresponding card with a single shape, ie a heart, that matches the monster.
I bought the mats at Mr Price Home for R50 each. They are the perfect size. We have them in the size 50×80 and in white, green and blue.
Resources
Happy Monsters by 1+1+1=1
Not-So-Scary Monsters Preschool Pack by Little Monkey Printables on Teachers Notebook
Updates, Summer Holidays and an Announcement
School is officially finished for the year and Summer Holidays have begun. We will be staying home for most of the summer holiday and will be visiting with family and friends starting new Christmas time traditions. We will be driving down for the day to spend time with my Gran and my maternal family for Christmas. The kids are super excited to get all the Christmas decorations up. I’ve been really sick with severe bronchitis so we still don’t have anything up.
Updates
Noo
Noo has accomplished so much this year and received his first academic award this morning. I’m so proud of him. He has grasped that hard work is rewarded and that it feels great to stand up in front of the school parent body to be acknowledged. He will be moving upward and onward to Grade 7 next year!
Koko
Koko has done exceptionally well this year. He continues to surpass my expectations. He joined the local Cub Scout Pack in the middle of this year and has really taken to it! He has set goals for himself on which badges he wants to work towards and has is meeting his goals. He finished his assessments yesterday and, having looked through them, he has done exceptionally well. We’ll be sending the assessments off to Clonard Distance Education (our curriculum providers) over the weekend once I have completed all the necessary documentation that needs to accompany them. He will be moving upward and onward to Grade 2 next year!
Fifi
Fifi is reading and will be starting Grade 1 in January! She just amazes every day. I decided to skip Grade R (South Africa’s version of Kindergarten) with her as she has been working on mostly Kindy work this year. I will continue working at her pace but will not put undue pressure on her. If it takes her longer than a year to complete Grade 1, then so be it. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (Available in South Africa here) has worked wonders with yet another child. Noo and Koko both used this program and I’ll be using it again when the time comes for Pixie to learn. Fifi is super excited to get started with Grade 1.
Pixie
Pixie is thriving with the way we school together. I continue to use the Montessori method with her as it works well and lets her be as independent as she wants (within reason, of course). Adding Pixie to the mix this year, has been the toughest adjustment for me since starting our homeschooling journey 6 years ago. I have learned a lot from her this year and I continue to discover new things, not only about her, but me too. I look forward to continuing Totschool with her next year.
The BIG Announcement
On a rather sad and difficult note, Noo has decided that he wants to live with his father on the other side of Johannesburg (about an hour and a half away, traffic dependent). He is of the age where he needs his dad as a constant figure in his life. Yes he has Steve, but it’s not the same. He is both excited and anxious to start Grade 7 in another primary school, but excited that he will get to take those same friends into high school with him the following year. This is a step that has been a long time in coming and, even though I have known for a few years that he wanted to live with his father when he reached high school age, its going to be tough to say good bye and only see him every other weekend and school holiday. He will be officially moving in with his father on 24 December and will become an only child once again. Boy, I’m going to miss him!